Based on an interesting premise of Patels (Gujarati families) living in the locality of Metro Park in New Jersey, the biggest merit of this latest Eros Now’s series is that it largely reminds you of the good old days of Doordarshan, when they used to make some great engaging shows with all well written likable characters offering clean family entertainment aired around the dinner time in the slab of 8-10 pm.
So bringing back the memories of that golden era, here we have a series featuring mostly Gujaratis and other Indians living together in America running a convenience (general) store, a beauty salon, a digital aarti service and more. Directed by an Indian American Abi Varghese, METRO PARK is not a hilarious laugh-riot, but a fine, light hearted, funny take on Indians adjusting with the western way of living in their own style.
Besides its thankfully one of those rare web-series of this new era that can be seen with the entire family together without looking for remote feeling the usual embarrassment.
What actually works in METRO PARK is its clean execution, witty dialogues and natural performances wherein you don’t get anything forced or over the top kind of deliberate humour. In fact the series can be seen just for Ranvir Shorey alone as Kalpesh Bhai, who is just terrific in his lingo, accent, mannerisms offering you a great time. Purbi Joshi as his wife supports him really well and so does Pitobash Tripathy, Vega Tamotia and more in supporting cast. However one really wishes there was more of Omi Vaidya in its various episodes, who could have made it into a much more entertaining series for sure.
Other than performances, METRO PARK also has a fresh look and feel, with a rich camerawork, eye-catching production design and background music matching its comic requirement. At the same time it also reminds you of a few British TV series or films having a similar ambience talking about the Indians living abroad.
Coming to the shortcomings, sadly it’s a major one since the series has everything but nothing as a plot. All the nine episodes keep focusing or rather relying on various characters and interesting instances in their daily lives but there isn’t any major exciting plot the series keeps revolving around.
So you can easily go for it as a fun-watch without expecting much, especially for Ranvir Shorey - who is once again at his best playing the typical Gujrati character.
But to be honest, METRO PARK also made me think that what if an entire series like this was made on Punjabis living abroad in their own styles. Will it be appreciated too taking it sportingly or that will become another case of ‘an extreme’ objected by the community?
Rating : 3 / 5
